


I'll Make This Feel Like Home

by lene1991



Category: Ed Sheeran (Musician), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Dom Harry, Dom Kevin Myers, Dom Liam, Dom Niall Breslin, Dom Nick, Dom/sub, Fluff, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Pirates, Sub Louis, Sub Niall, Sub Zayn, non-sexual dom/sub dynamics, non-violent piracy, sub ed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-04 23:27:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16356326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lene1991/pseuds/lene1991
Summary: Harry is a dom who just wants a life filled with non-violent piracy. Of course, his crew usually finds itself in a tight spot. During one  of these events, Harry and his crew save subs Louis and Zayn from an awful fate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a bit of self-indulgent fluff that was stuck in my head and wanted to come out.  
> I hope you enjoy it as well!

When Harry first saw Louis, they were in a dark shady pub on one of the Caribbean islands. Harry had already had a bad feeling when he walked into the pub. Niall always told him to suck it up when Harry told him he hated shady pubs in dark alleys. According to Niall having a conscience made you a bad pirate. Harry disagreed, what did Niall even knew about being a pirate. He and Ed had only joined their crew little over a year ago. Also, Niall was only a pirate because Harry and Liam had saved him and Ed. 

Even though Niall usually got fed up with Harry’s whining the quickest. It had been Liam who’d pushed him into the pub this time, according to his first mate they really needed some new supplies and apparently shady pubs were better than a market. 

‘Not those kinds of supplies, Harry.’ Liam sighed. ‘I have told you a million times, if we are overtaken by a different crew, we’re fucked. You’ve known Frank for years, you’re on first name basis with his wife. Nothing will go wrong, and if they do, just punch the guy.’ 

‘I don’t support violence, Liam.’ Harry pouted, he’d normally have Nick do these kinds of things, he didn’t mind playing dirty. But Nick had to get the flu, the big baby. 

‘That attitude will get you killed,’ Liam had said before he pushed Harry over the threshold. 

The pub was dimly-lit and smelled of cigarette smoke. The smoke had caused a layer of smoke to hang above the crowd. Harry stood back by the entrance to take in the different patrons. He always liked to have an escape route thought out. He had a knack for getting in trouble despite his best interests, one of the reasons he decided piracy was his best option in life. 

He saw his contact sitting at one of the boots in the back of the pub, there was a small stage area next to the booth. There were two chairs set up on the stage. The pub was packed, too packed to be a regular Tuesday night. The hairs on the back of Harry’s neck stood up straight, something was wrong. The pub was full of doms, which was not an abnormal occurrence. However, there were no subs at all, and that never meant anything good. 

Harry walked to the booth Frank was sitting at. The door to the pub opened again, that had to be Liam, Harry put one hand to the small of his back, holding up four fingers, highly dangerous situation. 

Harry took a seat at the boot, his contact looking up in surprise. ‘Mr. Styles, to what do we owe the pleasure? I was expecting Mr. Grimshaw.’ 

‘Nick has got the flu. How are you, Frank? Wife doing alright?’ Harry kept an eye on the rest of the pub, he had his back to the entrance and that made him uneasy. However, he could see Liam sitting at the bar out of the corner of his eyes. Harry trusted his crew with his life, but they had to be careful, there was a level of excitement to the pub that made Harry uneasy. 

‘She’s doing fine. Let’s get to business, you look like you want to get the hell out of here.’ Harry was not surprised Frank could tell so easily, Niall always warned him that Harry wore his heart on his sleeve. In addition, Frank had known him for six years, that didn’t help. 

‘Is something going on here tonight? It seems a bit too busy here for a weeknight.’

‘These are criminals Harry, they hardly have a ten o’clock bedtime on weekdays. But yes, Luke’s crew has been advertising some pretty big things happening here tonight. They are boosting about some rare goods up for sale.’ 

Harry felt dread pooling in his guts, Luke’s crew was the polar opposite of Harry’s and seeing how they were both from the same city, could be considered as their biggest rivals. Luke’s crew was made up of all doms, something Harry thought was unwise. Subs were a great addition to any crew as they offered a calm and clear-headedness that most doms missed. Furthermore, Luke seemed to get more criminal and more sadistic every time Harry saw him. Luke being enthusiastic about something couldn’t mean anything good. 

‘Well, let’s get to it then. I want no trouble tonight, we’re setting sail tomorrow morning. Does that work for you? I’ll pay you half now and half at the delivery, like always.’ Frank nodded, ‘Of course Harry. Same quantity, same price?’ Harry frowned at that and shook his head. 

‘How would that be possible? Times have changed Frank, prices have gone up everywhere by at least ten percent. We’ve come upon some good times, Niall’s Irish luck or something. We’ll pay a hundred and twenty-five percent.’ Frank shook his head wildly, but Harry interrupted him. ‘Think of your family, Frank. Business must be tough, when it gets better I’ll expect the biggest discount ever.’ Harry held out his hand. Frank’s eyes had a wet sheen to them, but he still hesitated. Harry grabbed the hand Frank had wrapped around his pint and shook it. ‘Great doing business with you, I’ll see you tomorrow morning at six sharp. Have a lovely evening, say hello to Susan for me.’ 

Harry stood up from the booth, handed Frank a bag with the money and turned towards the exit, he still felt uneasy about this place and wanted to leave as soon as possible. Making eye contact with Liam he signalled for the door when a voice called out from the back of the pub. 

‘Look who we have here! Harry Styles, back from your heroic travels?’ Harry turned around to the little stage at the back of the pub. On the stage stood Luke, the one man Harry wouldn’t hesitate to kill in an instant. Harry gave him a small wave and turned back around, he really didn’t want to start any trouble. The only thing keeping his and his crew’s family safe was Harry’s agreement with the police and their pledge to keep them safe if Harry promised not to deal with Luke like he wanted to. This might have been the most criminal island in the Caribbean, that also made it the safest place for a criminal’s family. He had almost reached the door when Luke spoke up again. 

‘Come on Harry don’t leave so soon! Don’t you want to see the goods we’re selling today? I promise you they’re worth a good penny.’ Harry made eye contact with Liam, who was frowning and looking at the stage, his mouth falling open. Harry turned around just in time see Luke’s second pulling two tied boys to the stage. They both looked sedated, their eyes only half open, they were both only wearing dirty pairs of underwear, they were both subs. They were disposed on the chairs, both sagging in due to the drugs in their system. The boy closest to Luke was small, smaller even than Niall, he also looked half-starved, his cheeks sunken and his ribs showing. He had brown hair that hung in greasy streaks along his face. The boy looked to be fighting hard to stay awake, a battle he was winning at the moment though he looked on the verge of passing out. The boy on his right didn’t look much better, he looked a bit taller but just as thin. He had long black hair hanging over his face. He looked to be unconscious. 

Harry could feel his body shaking with repressed anger, he knew Luke had no morals, but he never thought he would stoop so low. Harry has done and seen many despicable things in his time, but he sincerely thought human trafficking of subs was something from the past. 

He could see Liam balling his fists by his side, even Niall seemed to have moved his attention away from his pint and onto the scene playing out in front of him. His moth was open wide, and he looked panicked, Harry worried over him instantly but knew he had to safe the two boys on the stage first. Niall would be okay, he had a knack of getting himself out of trouble. 

Harry knew his crew would know what Harry was about to do. There was no way they would expect him to walk away from something so inhumane, not after Ed and Niall. He could see the crewmates he had stationed around the pub all laying a hand to their weapon. None of his crew would come across a situation like this and walk away. That’s why they were Harry’s crew, his family. 

‘Luke, I cannot say I condone your recent activities.’ Harry turned to the owner of the pub behind the bar. He, too, seemed livid at what he was seeing unfolding in his own pub. ‘I must say, you did manage to surprise all of us tonight, an unpleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. Maybe next time you should disclose your true intentions, you might have taken this a step too far tonight.’ Luke looked around him, taking in all the shocked and angry faces of the patrons. He visibly shook his head and shoulders and pasted a manic smile on his face. 

‘Oh, come on, don’t be a spoilsport! You can all save these lovely boys, they’re yours for the buying! We’ll start the bidding at one hundred thousand.’ He held up the brown-haired boy closest to him. The boy could barely hold his eyes open bit still managed to glare at Luke. Despite his rough appearance he looked fierce and tough as nails. Luke shook the boy when no-one placed a bid. 

‘Who wants to place the first bid, Louis here is quite the spitfire! He even managed to get out of his bindings yesterday. So, some caution is needed with him.’ Luke grabbed Louis by the face and forced his mouth open. ‘Nice set of teeth, too! Good for all kinds of… OW!’ Louis had bitten the fingers Luke had forced into his mouth, Harry was impressed. Luke grabbed Louis around the throat and pressed a gun to his forehead. Louis eyes widened slightly. ‘If no-one pays me one hundred thousand for this cunt I will shoot his brains out!’ 

Harry was shocked out of his admiration for the boy and drew his own gun. He aimed it at Luke but didn’t dare firing, he couldn’t risk hitting Louis. Luke’s second drew a gun in reaction to Harry, Liam had aimed his gun the next second. In fact, the entire pub had drawn and aimed a gun. The majority of the guns were aimed at Luke, but Harry could still see inside the barrel of one too many guns for his liking. 

Luke didn’t seem faced seeing so many guns, it almost seemed like he had planned for this to happen. He probably did. Everyone who knows Harry will know that he cannot let anything like this happen in his presence. Harry was assessing all possible outcomes to this situation, not liking any of them. Just as he was about to panic, he could see someone sneaking out from behind the curtains at the edges of the stage. He shot Liam a look to make sure he saw it too, Liam gave Harry a small nod and lowered his gun a tad to signal to the crew no shots were to be fired. 

Ed crept up behind Luke with a brick in his hand. He almost casually raised it and smacked Luke ‘round the head. Ed once again proved how dangerous he was even though he refused to even look at a gun. Luke crumbled like a house of cards, releasing Louis in the process. Ed caught Louis while Harry lodged a bullet in Luke’s second’s knee, causing him to crumple to the floor as well. 

Harry and Liam rushed to the stage. Harry took Louis from Ed and turned to Liam. ‘Untie the other one and follow me, we’re going to the ship immediately. I don’t want to be anywhere near this place when Luke wakes up.’ Liam untied the second boy with Niall’s help and lifted him up. 

The entire pub had emptied after Harry had fired his shot. Only Frank stood waiting at the entrance of the pub. ‘When will you be leaving, Harry?’ Frank had the foresight to walk with Harry as he had no intentions of stopping before he was at open sea. 

‘We’ll be leaving as soon as possible, I’m afraid our deal will have to fall through, you may keep the advance payment, of course.’ 

Frank quickly shook his head. ‘Nonsense, that won’t be necessary, I can have your supplies at your ship within the hour if you needed.’ Harry was about to refuse but Liam cut him off before he had the chance. 

‘Yes, that would be great.’ Harry shook his head. ‘We have to Harry, we won’t be safe otherwise, we won’t be able to protect all the subs on the ship if we don’t have the supplies. Also, some crew members are out for the night, Niall is rounding them up now, but it will take at least another hour before everybody is on board ready to depart.’ 

Harry reluctantly had to agree with Liam. There was a reason Liam was first mate, he was the only one level-headed enough to reason before taking a decision. Harry was good at spur of the moment decisions, but he couldn’t think a situation over before acting. He gave Frank a curt nod. Frank quickly ran in the direction of his warehouse. ‘Is there anything else we absolutely need from this place? It might be quite possible we won’t be here for another six months.’ Liam seemed to think about Harry’s question before shaking his head. 

They reached the ship quickly, Harry ordered Liam to put the two boys in Harry’s cabin. ‘Put them on the bed, and give them some of Niall and Ed’s clothes, they seem to be the same size as them.’ Even though Harry had directed this order at Liam, Ed had been listening in as always and quickly obeyed Harry. Liam and Harry put Louis and the other boy on the bed. They let Ed dress them as Harry crouched down near Louis head. Despite being heavily drugged, Louis still managed to keep his eyes open. While he looked at Harry, he had a vacant look in his eyes. Harry still decided to treat him as if he were conscious. Harry figured that would put the boy at ease most. 

‘Louis? You’re safe now. You and your friend were kidnapped, but we saved you. We will have a talk tomorrow, and then we’ll be taking you home. There is no need to be afraid anymore, no-one on this ship will ever lay a hand on you. And if they do, you’ll come to me and I’ll chop of their hands. Ed’s just dressing you right now, so you won’t get cold. Tomorrow, when …” Ed cleared his throat, Harry was startled out of his rambling and looked up at him. 

‘I don’t think he’s listening to you anymore.’ Ed gestured to Louis, who had now finally succumbed to the effects of the drugs and had fallen asleep. Harry looked over to the other boy, he was also completely gone to the world. Liam was slowly pushing the hair off his face. 

‘Well, let’s leave them sleep, then. Liam make sure someone is watching the door at all times, no-one comes in or goes out of this room without me knowing.’ Liam nodded. ‘Of course, Harry. We’ll keep them safe.’ 

Harry turned to Ed. ‘Good work today, Ed. We would probably not have made it out alive if it weren’t for you.’ Ed had turned beet red. 

‘No problem, we’re family. Also, I owed you for getting me and Niall out. It was the least I could do.’ Even though Ed tried to seem like he was fine, Harry could see he was shaking. 

‘Where’s Kev, did you see him tonight?’ Harry wrapped one arm around Ed and pulled him into his side. Even though Kev would probably have his head for touching his sub, he’d agree with Harry that Ed needed comfort as soon as he could get it. 

Ed released a shaky breath. ‘No, he said something about going to the shops before coming to the pub, but I didn’t see him there at all.’ Ed seemed to get worked up a bit. That worried Harry, as Ed normally was such a relaxed sub that never seemed to get overly emotional. Being confronted with his past like this had probably rattled him more than he wanted to let on. Luckily, Kev chose that moment to rush onto the ship. 

‘Bae?’ He rushed to Ed’s side, with a glare at Harry, he took him into his arms. ‘Niall just told me what happened, are you alright, darling?’ Ed buried his face in his dom’s neck. He might want to appear to be fearless, it was only natural for a sub to drop as soon as they considered themselves to be safe. Kev gathered Ed in his arms and carried him off, whispering in his ears how brave he was. 

Harry turned to Liam, ‘Have you seen Niall come back?’ Liam pointed to the other end of the deck, where Niall was sitting in Bressie’s lap cuddled into a blanket. Liam put a hand on Harry’s shoulder, ‘They’ll be alright, Haz. They can handle more than we doms can ever imagine.’ Harry shook his head. ‘They might be able to handle it, but they shouldn’t. It’s our jobs as doms to save them from harm and keep them happy.’ 

Harry turned to the two subs lying in his bed. They were dressed and covered in blankets but were still huddled in on themselves. ‘Let’s give them a bad in the morning, and make sure they are the first ones to eat.’ He blew out all the candles excepts for one next to the bed. He left the room and with one more look at the fierce sub that had bitten the bad guy with the gun, he closed the door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the second chapter, enjoy!  
> Small disclaimer: This chapter was not edited, I posted it right after writing it.

Harry awoke early the next morning, he’d only gone to bed late the previous night but wasn’t able to sleep in the room all single doms shared. He’d normally sleep in his cabin, but there were currently two recently saved subs in his bed. His thoughts had been on the brown-haired fire-cracker all night. He still couldn’t believe that sub had bitten Luke. Harry has wanted to bite Luke since he was nine years old, but he’d never had the guts.

Harry got up and washed up in the common bathroom. He headed to the kitchen to check on Niall and Ed. They were in charge of most meals, after they complained about the food their first week on the ship. Niall was singing a song of his own invention, drumming on the pans with his spatula to provide himself with a beat. Harry smiled, Niall had never been easily thrown off, it was good to see that Niall didn’t seem to be too bothered by the previous night’s events.

Ed was humming along to Niall’s song while he was washing dishes. He seemed a bit tired, and his eyes were red-rimmed. Kev was sitting at the kitchen table, though, keeping a close eye on Ed, so Harry didn’t need to worry about him too much. Still, as Captain he felt it was his duty to make sure all subs on his ship were happy and cared for.

Niall and Ed had been saved from sub trafficking only a year ago. Niall had never been sold, Ed was there for his second auction. He never opened up much about what had happened to him, at least not to Harry. Harry guessed Kev knew more about what had happened but respected Ed enough not to tell others.

‘Alright lads? What’s for breakfast?’ Niall turned around with a beaming smile. ‘Captain, we’ve got eggs and pancakes, Frank smuggled some fresh eggs and milk into the supplies yesterday. But you’re not getting anything until the guests have eaten. Captain’s orders.’

Harry snickered, Niall sure as hell was fine. ‘Well, we better follow the Captain’s orders, I hear he’s a real pain in the arse if his orders are ignored.’ Niall winked at him, ‘your words, not mine.’ He pressed a tray with two plates of steaming eggs and pancakes and two cups of tea in Harry’s hands. ‘Go make yourself useful and feed the guests, would you?’

Kev burst out laughing while Louis gaped at Niall. ‘I’ll have to talk to Bressie about all the privileges he’s allowing you.’ Niall didn’t even turn around. ‘You do that, Captain.’ Harry could still hear Kev laughing when he reached the upper deck, his crew really didn’t respect him enough.

He found Liam outside his cabin. ‘You sleep alright?’ he asked him. Liam shook his head, ‘didn’t feel right to leave someone else in charge. I’ll have a nap in a bit, after they’re settled.’

Harry frowned at Liam. ‘You should have woken me up, I would have taken your place. Are they awake yet?’ Liam shrugged his shoulders, ‘I didn’t hear any talking, but they might be too scared to talk. They might not realise they’ve been rescued yet.’

Harry frowned, ‘Of course, I hadn’t thought of that yet. They were both heavily drugged last night and Louis only had his eyes open out of sheer will. We should expect them to see us as the enemy. We have to make sure that whatever they do, no-one loses their temper. In time, they will be disciplined for any misbehaviour, but that will only be when they have realised they are safe here.’

Harry balanced the tray he was holding on one arm, he carefully knocked on the door and waited for the occupants of the cabin to react, they didn’t. Harry had Liam open the door to his cabin, inside he found all his worldly possessions strewn across the floor. The two subs that were the cause for this mess, were huddled together in the far corner of the cabin. Louis had pushed his friend behind him to shield him from the intruders. Harry stepped over some of his favourite books and put the tray on his desk.

‘Good morning, I see you have made yourselves at home. Please have some breakfast, we have eggs and pancakes, Niall, the cook, would like to inform you not to get used to such luxuries, because the Captain is a dick.’ Liam sniggered, Louis looked positively confused. ‘My name is Harry, and I’m the Captain of this ship, I will be the one making sure you and your friend are safe until we have brought you guys home.’

‘You’re taking us home?’ Louis sounded very disbelieving. ‘You bought us from that monster and now you’re just dropping us off at home? I hope you don’t find it offensive when I say you’re full of shit.’ Louis had crossed his arms defiantly. Harry must give it to him, the sub had some balls. Harry couldn’t imagine how difficult it must be for him to stand up to Harry, a dom, who had stowed him away on a ship at open sea. The other boy must agree with Harry because he poked Louis in his side and hissed for him to shut up.

‘You don’t have to believe me, I don’t think I would believe myself if I were in your situation. We might be pirates, but even we have a conscience, my mum would have my balls if she heard I left two subs to be sold to the highest bidder. Also, Niall and Ed would feed me to the sharks. What are your names?’

The boy shielded by Louis seemed to have finally felt secure enough to come out of hiding, he pushed Louis aside to step forward. He was skinny, Niall’s clothes were hanging off of him. Something that worried Harry, because Niall himself was already of very slight build. His black hair was framing his face in greasy tangles, his eyes were sunken into his face and he had dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he could collapse any second.

‘My name is Zayn,’ he didn’t raise his voice above a whisper and he addressed the floor instead of Harry, but it clearly took him great effort to speak. Liam stepped up next to Harry, ‘It’s nice to meet you, Zayn. Please have some food, you look like you haven’t had a proper meal in a while.’

Liam walked to the desk and pulled out one of the two chairs, he gestured for Zayn to take a seat. Zayn carefully walked over, he shrugged off Louis hand as he tried to stop him from getting any closer to Harry and Liam. Harry could clearly hear Louis hiss the word “trap” at Zayn.

Zayn ignored Louis and took a seat at the desk, he picked up a fork and speared some of the eggs. Before he could bring the food to his mouth, Louis had grabbed the fork and flung the food from it. Bits of egg hit Harry square in the face. Liam burst out laughing, Louis and Zayn looked terrified.

Harry took a deep breath, ‘May I ask why Zayn is not allowed to eat our food?’ Louis crossed his arms and scowled at Harry. ‘The food is drugged, it must be! Last time we got food it was drugged as well! You just want us drugged so you can have your wicked pirate ways with us!’ Louis had raised his voice with each breath he took, eventually, he was screaming at Harry. Harry could see Liam out of the corner of his eyes, trying not to laugh. Harry could admit it must have been quite the sight, him getting yelled at while he still had pieces of egg in his hair.

‘Louis, I understand the situation you’re in must be very scary, but you’re safe here. The food is not poisoned.’ He took one of the pieces of egg stuck in his hair and ate it. Louis eyes went wide. ‘Please, sit down and have some breakfast, you look like you’ll collapse any minute.’ Zayn was no longer interested in the conversation, he had started on his breakfast and was shovelling the food into his mouth as quickly as he could. Liam was crouched next to him trying to get him to slow down his eating.

Louis was looking at Zayn as well, with a huff he sat into the chair next to Zayn. He shoved Zayn when he was about to shove an entire pancake into his mouth at once. ‘Slow down, you’ll make yourself sick.’ Louis calmly took the cutlery in his hands and cut off a small piece of pancake. He sniffed it before eating. It must have been good because Louis seemed to forget all the reservations he previously seemed to have. He too shovelled as much of the food into his mouth as possible.

Harry didn’t want to think about when these boys last had a decent meal. Harry stepped out of the cabin to get Louis and Zayn some water to drink, he made sure to bring them two clean glasses and a sealed bottle. He entered the cabin again to find that both Louis and Zayn had cleared their plates. He put the bottle and glasses on the table in front of them. ‘Here, have something to drink. The seal is still on the bottle, no-one has tampered with it.’ Louis glared at Harry before taking the bottle and opening it. He poured him and Zayn a glass of water before downing and refilling his own.

Harry waited until Louis and Zayn seemed to have finished completely. ‘Now that you’ve eaten, we can discuss some of the logistics of your stay here. As you might have noticed, we’re currently at sea. Normally we would have waited for you to wake up before setting sail, but the guys who tried to sell you have a lot of control on the island we were at. It was safer for us to leave as soon as possible.’ Louis and Zayn both didn’t look at Harry while he was speaking to them, but they both seemed to be listening to him. ‘We will get you back home as soon as we can, we do not think Luke, the guy who took you, has anything personal against you, so you should be safe there. Until we reach your home, you will stay on this ship and we’ll do everything we can to keep you two safe. You will be free to roam the ship, I just ask you to please stay out of the way of my crew when they’re working on tasks. There are multiple subs on this ship so everyone should know how to act-’

‘Do you always let your hostages walk around your ship freely?’ Harry sighed, Louis turned out to be very stubborn. While he greatly admired him for it, it also was the cause for the headache he could feel coming on.

‘I just told you we are going to take you both home, we don’t have you tied up and we just fed you a lovely breakfast! I promise you if you were our hostages we’d have you tied up on the lower-deck living off of water and stale bread.’ Harry rubbed his temples, he really did not sleep enough last night to have conversations like this. Louis didn’t seem to have the same problem. ‘You don’t need to have us tied up, we’re at open sea, there is nowhere for us to run!’

Harry sighed, he argued with Niall and Ed enough in the beginning to know when he was fighting a losing battle. ‘I understand that you won’t trust us overnight, Louis. That might even be the smart course to take when in a situation like yours, but I have no other way to convince you that we can be trusted. Where do you want us to drop you off?’ Louis seemed taken aback by Harry’s refusal to argue with him. ‘Ehm…we’re form England.’

Harry collected all the dirty dishes on the tray and made to leave the cabin. He motioned for Liam to follow him. ‘England it is, I’ll let the helmsman know immediately. We’ll leave you two alone for now, please feel free to explore the ship. When you hear a bell, that will be the signal for lunch, just follow the crew downstairs and you’ll be fed. Tonight, you’ll sleep in the subs’ dormitory, that will be your sleeping quarters for the rest of your stay on this ship.’ Harry left the cabin, making sure to leave the door open before bringing the tray back to the kitchen.

After talking to the helmsman, Harry made his way to the kitchen for his own breakfast. Liam, Kev, Bressie, Niall and Ed were all sat around the table. They saved Harry a spot at the head of the table. The only sign of respect they ever gave their Captain. When Niall saw Harry come in, he got up to make him a plate. Harry sat down with a sigh. ‘Thanks Niall, it looks delicious. The guests liked it as well, they cleared their plates in record time.’ He tucked into his breakfast while Liam explained to the others how this morning had gone.

‘They seem to have a lot of trust issues, but that is to be expected. As far as they know they were being sold and now they’re here. They have no recollection of being saved. They ate the food eventually, which is a good sign, but they might try to escape or provoke some of the crew. Especially Louis needs to be watched closely, he threw some eggs at Harry.’ Niall snorted so loudly he had bits of eggs coming out of his nose, even Ed laughed at Harry’s expense. Harry didn’t mind at all, he was happy to see Ed laugh again, he seemed so sad after last night’s events. Kev seemed relieved to see a smile on his sub’s face as well.

‘We need to make sure these subs feel safe here as soon as possible,’ Liam continued seriously. ‘We cannot have them taunting the crew, one of them will snap eventually. Louis and Zayn will be disciplined if needed but only by Harry or me. Any ideas to get them to settle in without any major issues?’ Liam looked around the table, he was mainly interested in Niall and Ed’s opinions. They could relate with Louis and Zayn more than anyone else.

Ed seemed to hesitate before speaking, Kev tugged him into his side. Ed looked up into Kev’s eyes before taking a deep breath. ‘What worked best for me was getting a place on the crew, getting a job to do and getting to know everyone else. I guess it will be easier for them to trust the crew not to hurt them if they can consider them as friends. Also, I really liked how open you guys were. You told us everything that was happening on the ship, and you asked our opinion on important matters, that also made me feel really safe. It felt like I got a bit of the control over my own life back. That also made it easier to submit once the time was right.’ Ed seemed done with talking, he took all the empty plates and started the washing up. Kev got up to help him, drying the plates Ed cleaned and putting them back in the cabinets.

Niall swallowed the last bite of his breakfast, ‘Well, I just really tried my best to piss you guys off to see what would happen. In retrospect it was good to be disciplined in a proper way after being abused for a while. But I didn’t like getting disciplined by different doms. I liked it a lot when Bressie started carrying out all my punishments, made me feel a lot safer. I liked the idea of having my own dom to look after me when I misbehaved and at night,’

‘Thanks for telling us, Niall. We will definitely make sure they will get disciplined by one dom only. I’ll take care of Louis punishments, and Liam will take care of Zayn. That might change once they form a connection with another dom, but we’ll get to that when it happens. Also, we’ll see how they like sleeping in the dormitories, we might eventually move them to our cabins. Have them sleep with us if that might make them feel saver.' 

Louis and Zayn did not leave Harry’s cabin their first day on the ship. They ignored both bells calling for meals. Harry first thought it would be best to leave Louis and Zayn alone for a bit, but he also really wanted them to eat. Every time he closed his eyes he could see them on that stage in just their ratty underwear. After the crew had eaten and all the dishes were done, Harry had Niall and Ed go into the cabin with some food for Louis and Zayn. 

‘Please make sure they eat. Force them if you need to, we really cannot use two subs on a hunger strike. They look way too thin for them not to be eating. Try to get them to talk, see what happened to them, if there might be things we need to take into consideration.’ 

Niall and Ed had nodded and had gone into Harry’s cabin. They had not come out for two hours. Bressie and Kev were standing guard in front of the cabin, Kev’s ear pressed to the door. He looked about ready to break down the door. Bressie looked a whole lot more relaxed, leaning against the door with his arms crossed. 

‘Everything alright, lads?’ Harry had trouble containing his smile. Those two subs were perfectly safe inside that room, Harry made sure there were no weapons in there before he left Louis and Zayn in there. Also, subs were genetically programmed not to be violent towards each other. Kev and Bressie still seemed to be on high alert. 

‘I cannot hear any signs of a struggle, but you never know, that Louis guy seemed quite self-destructive, biting a man with a bloody gun!’ Kev seemed to be talking himself into barging into the room. Liam put a calming hand on his shoulder. ‘Calm down, Kev. Louis didn’t know Luke had a gun. Besides, Niall is just as fierce as Louis.’ 

Bressie laughed, ‘Niall is armed.’ All the other doms turned to him, looking surprised. Bressie normally didn’t condone violence. ‘What? You thought I’d let Niall run along with you guys on your missions without him having proper protection? I’ve given Niall his first knife weeks before he was allowed to join you. I’ve also trained him in self-defence, made him feel a lot safer.’ 

Harry considered this, ‘That’s actually a very logical thing to do. I think it might be best if we trained all our subs in self-defence, just in case something happens to them when we’re not around.’ Kev seemed to relax at that, “Ed knows the basics, but he doesn’t feel safe yielding a weapon. I think he would like a little self-defence class.’ Harry nodded, ‘Well, that settles it then, we’ll be teaching them some self-defence skills, we start tomorrow after breakfast.’ 

All doms were startled by the door opening. Niall poked his head out of the cabin. ‘Oh, good you’re all here. Louis and Zayn would like a bath and some clean clothes. Please get that arranged.’ With that he closed the door and left all doms standing with their mouths gaping open. 

‘Well, at least no-one’s getting murdered in there,’ Bressie said as he set of in search of a bathtub and some warm water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Again, I am not sure when the next part will be up, that all depends on my mood and inspiration the next week.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, another bit of this story.  
> Still not sure how many bits there will be in total/where the hell this story is going.  
> I am just writing as I go and I hope you'll enjoy.

Niall and Ed managed to get Louis and Zayn to come to breakfast the next morning. Harry decided not to make a big deal out of it and wished them a good morning when passing the table they were sitting at. He had informed Niall and Ed on the idea of some self-defence classes to make the new subs feel safer. They both really seemed to like the idea and promised Harry they would have Louis and Zayn come to the first lesson. 

During breakfast, Harry made the announcement that all subs wanting to join the self-defence classes were more than welcome to neglect their duties that morning and join. All doms wanting to help were welcome to offer their services as well. Harry’s crew was not your typical pirate’s crew. It was made up off doms and subs, both single and paired up. Some of Harry’s crew had decided to take their subs with them on their travel, other subs decided regular life was not for them and were looking for adventure. This was also the reason Harry avoided violence as much as he could. He did not feel comfortable exposing so many subs to such dangerous situations. 

Luke’s crew was the polar opposite. The crew consisted of only doms and didn’t shy away from a bit of violence. In fact, the more violence, the happier Luke’s crew. This sickened Harry, and he was very vocal in his displeasure. While Harry did as much as he could to make the world a better place, Luke was the prime example of an evil pirate. They were both from the same hometown and while they used to be friendly towards each other at first, they were sworn enemies ever since Luke had tried to go after Liam’s sister. 

During the raid to get her back, they had found more subs being held in the same facility. They saved all subs and brought most of them home. Two of the subs refused to go back home and were still with Harry’s crew today. Niall and Ed had proven themselves to be very valuable crew members. Ever since that moment, Luke and Harry had been each other’s worst enemies. Harry had done everything in his power since then to make sure that all sub trafficking was ended, at least in the part of the world he had some influence. He thought he did all he could and had succeeded. However, Luke had seemed to have found a way around the agreements and contracts Harry had negotiated with the politicians and law enforcers. 

It would be Harry’s new mission to roll up the organisation Luke had built up so far to be able to organise a sale in one of the safest towns on the continent. Harry would need to go back to find out who were involved so he could make sure that this business was shut down once and for all. He owed it to Niall and Ed and even Louis and Zayn to do everything in his power to stop Luke. 

All doms and subs interested in taking part in the self-defence class met on the upper deck after breakfast. Harry was glad to see that all subs and their doms had come to the training. Even some single doms had come to offer their services. He instructed each sub to pair up with a dom that wasn’t their own. They would not be able to physically defend themselves against their own dom as they were programmed to submit to them. Louis and Zayn were left after everyone had paired-off as they didn’t know anybody yet. Harry instructed Liam to help Zayn, while Harry teamed up with Louis. 

They had Paul, their most skilled fighter, give the training. The subs were all instructed in the colouring system they were supposed to use when things got too much. Most subs used the same system with their doms, but some of the single subs might not be familiar with it. Paul next had the doms standing behind the subs. Louis kept looking backwards to make sure Harry didn’t do anything he wasn’t expecting. 

‘I will never touch you without your consent. Just listen to Paul and you’ll know exactly when I’ll be touching you.’ Louis just glared at him in response but seemed to focus more on Paul’s instructions after that. At Paul’s signal Harry took a step closer to Louis. 

‘What’s your colour?’ Louis seemed startled by this question, looking back at Harry once more. ‘Wha-what do you mean?’ Harry frowned in response. ‘Your colour, Louis. Paul has just asked us to approach you from behind. I’m asking you if you’re okay with me touching you. Did doms not ask you for your colour back home?’ Louis turned beet red at once and turned back around his posture stiff as a board. 

‘Not usually, no. No use when nobody is listening.’ Harry frowned again, he was tempted to drag Louis back to his cabin and have him explain what exactly he meant. Instead, he decided to let Louis tell him whenever he felt secure enough to share such personal information with Harry. It seemed like Louis hadn’t met a decent dom in a while. 

‘Well, on this ship every dom will listen to your colours. If they don’t, you’ll come to me and I’ll make sure they’re punished accordingly. Your colour?’ Louis didn’t turn back around but Harry could see his shoulders slumping as he released a big breath he’d been holding. Harry could feel the tension radiating off of Louis in waves, but now was not the moment to deal with that. 

‘Green,’ Louis said at last. Harry stepped forward cautiously and held Louis as instructed. One of his arms wrapped around his stomach and his other held Louis across his chest just under his neck. Louis’ own hands immediately flew to the arm Harry held around his neck. Harry could feel Louis’ breathing become shallow, within seconds he was panting. Harry tried to remain as calm as he could when Louis ignored Paul’s next instruction to try to get out of the dom’s hold. 

‘Colour?’ Harry asked. Louis seemed to have lost his focus and was panicking. He wasn’t breathing properly and he was clutching Harry’s forearm so tightly his nails had left crescent-shaped marks on his arm. Harry loosened his hold slightly but did not let go of Louis completely. ‘Louis,’ Harry tried to sound as authoritative as possible to get Louis out of this state of shock, ‘Louis, listen to me. Tell me your colour.’ 

Louis gasped for breath as if he’d just submerged form being under water too long. ‘I-I don’t- I don’t know.’ Harry released Louis completely and took a step back. He walked around Louis to crouch in front of him. Louis was clutching his own neck, trying to catch his breath. ‘On this ship, “I don’t know”, means no or red or stop, in all cases a dom will stop what he’s doing immediately. Tell me what happened.’ 

Louis took another choppy breath. ‘Just, the way you were holding me brought back some memories.’ Harry didn’t like the sound of that. He didn’t know how long Louis had been with Luke and how he’d gotten there in the first place but looking at the small hints Louis had dropped; his life hadn’t been a safe one so far. 

‘Did you manage to get yourself free last time?’ Louis looked down at the floor, almost as if ashamed. When he looked back up at Harry, his eyes were glanced over with tears. He shook his head. ‘That’s why we’re doing this. So next time, if this ever happens again, you’ll know exactly how to save yourself.’  
Louis sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve, Harry ignored the tears running down his cheeks. ‘Why are you doing this?’ Harry gestured to all the other pairs on the deck. ‘Do you see all those subs?’ Louis nodded. ‘They’re my family, and as long as you choose to be on this ship, you’re my family as well. We take care of our family here, if last night showed us anything it’s that subs are still not safe. All we can do is make sure we do everything in our power to help them be a little safer.’ Harry stood up, ‘So, wipe those tears. I’ll approach you from the back, and you’ll do whatever you can to get out of my hold. Understood?’ 

Louis seemed to give himself a mental pep talk before he squared his shoulders and turned around again. Harry walked up behind him and held his arms out in from of Louis without making contact. ‘Colour?’ Louis didn’t hesitate. ‘Green.’ 

Harry and Louis practiced how to get out of an attack from the back the entire morning. They were still at it long after Paul had dismissed the other pairs. Louis had freaked out one more time when Harry’s arm had slipped around his neck due to all his squirming. However, as Harry immediately released Louis and took a step back, Louis possibly felt even safer with Harry after this ordeal. 

Paul had joined them to give Louis tips and directions as he attempted to get out of Harry’s hold. After a while Harry’s feet and stomach started aching from how often Louis had punched and stomped him, but he never complained. Louis seemed to get more secure each time he managed to get out of Harry’s hold. After he had yelled at Harry accusing him of not giving his all, Harry had Paul attack Louis. When Louis managed to shrug Paul off and flee, Harry had called it a day. 

‘When will we practice again?’ Louis asked as he followed Harry to his cabin. Harry looked at Louis, he seemed full of energy even after he had worked out intensively for at least two hours. ‘We will practice again when my feet and stomach are not bruised anymore.’ Louis looked triumphant. ‘Have I hurt you?’ Harry frowned at him. ‘Don’t be too happy about that.’ Louis' face fell. ‘Sorry, it’s just that I’ve never managed to really hurt a dom. No matter how hard I tried.’ 

Harry felt his heart constrict at that. Louis just kept reminding him how little he really knew about him. It was really good to Louis so happy and carefree, it was a complete different sight than the scared, drugged sub he’d met the previous night. Harry made it his personal mission to make Louis smile like he did when he managed to get out of Harry’s hold every day. And he would kill anyone who’d ever hurt him, that too. 

Liam met Harry back at his cabin, ‘What happened?’ 

‘He panicked,’ Harry said as he made his way into his cabin to change out of his work-out clothes. Liam rolled his eyes. ‘I could see that he panicked. I meant with you, that’s the first time I’ve seen you be so patient with a sub. Normally you would’ve dumped him with Paul as soon as you could’ve.’ 

Harry scowled at Liam. ‘Are you calling me a bad dom?’ Liam immediately held up his hands and shook his head. ‘No! Sorry, no, that is the last thing I want to insinuate. You’re an awesome dom Harry, you’ve singlehandedly saved more subs than the entire crew together. It’s just that you usually don’t get close with them, you save them and make sure they’re okay and then you just leave them with another dom. This was the first time I’ve ever seen you comfort a sub, that’s all.’ 

After Liam had left, Harry was still mulling his words over in his head. Liam was right in pointing out that he’d never felt as concerned about a sub before. Harry was man enough to acknowledge he was attracted to Louis and felt a connection with him. He just didn’t want to think about the moment he had to deliver Louis back to his family in England.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: this chapter contains some poor language choices and referenced/implied (sexual) abuse.

Harry did not see Louis for a while after lunch. He was too busy consulting his crewmates on the next steps to take. His crew all agreed that they needed to take action and make sure there were no subs being sold by Luke and his crew. However, as most of Harry’s crew did not condone violence, this posed a bit of a problem while making plans. 

‘I don’t get why you’re being such whiney cunts. Just poke them with your swords a bit and be done with it’ Niall was standing on his chair, showing the rest how he would “poke them with his sword a bit”. Bressie pulled Niall down on his chair. ‘Mind your language and sit down. We’re not stooping to their level unless it’s absolutely necessary. You also seem to forget the other subs that might be in the system at the moment, we need to make sure they’re safe as well. Killing everyone who might know where they are will not keep them safe, that will only put them in even more danger.’ 

Niall looked at his hands in shame, his head bowed in submission. ‘I am sorry, I did not think of that.’ Bressie pulled Niall into his side and kissed his hair. ‘I know, darling. That’s why we’re discussing it together, so others can point out things we might overlook ourselves.’ Niall nodded but still looked a bit down. It was clear that both Niall and Ed tried to forget about their past as much as possible. The few times they were reminded of their past, they tended to get lost in their own head. Bressie and Kev were experts at getting them out of their heads but having Louis and Zayn on the ship confronted them with their past more than they normally would be. 

Ed, who had been sitting in Kev’s lap for the duration of the meeting, looked like he had been thinking something over for a while now. He looked like he wanted to start speaking before shaking his head and slumping back against Kev’s chest. ‘Why don’t you tell us what’s going through your mind, so we can help you decide whether it’s a good idea?’ Kev tried to coax Ed into telling them what he was thinking off. 

‘Well, I was thinking about maybe one of us infiltrating,’ Ed spoke to his hands, not daring to look at the reactions of the others. Liam frowned. ‘You mean one of the doms pretending to be a sub? That might turn out to be quite difficult, Luke knows who’s on our crew, he probably also knows exactly who’s a dom and who’s a sub.’ Ed shook his head, still not looking up. ‘I meant one of the subs, maybe even me. Maybe we could pretend I got stolen one night and they sell me and I could tell you exactly what was going on if – well, you’d have to buy me back, I guess.’ Kev was clearly struggling not to outright go against what Ed was saying. Ed probably felt the tension in Kev’s body, as he kept looking at his hands. 

Harry seriously considered Ed’s idea. Even though his first instinct was to tell Ed no, he also wanted to dismantle this organisation to ensure that all subs would be safe from Luke and his cronies. Ed’s plan was too dangerous to put into motion, that was for sure. But that didn’t mean that it couldn’t be done, it just needed some alterations. Harry chose his words carefully as he spoke next, he didn’t want Ed to feel like he got dismissed, Harry might value the subs’ input more than the doms’ input as their point of view differed so wildly from his. 

‘You know what, that’s not even a bad idea-‘ Kev slammed his fist on the table. ‘I am not allowing you to put my sub into that kind of danger, Styles!’ He bellowed, Ed shrinking in on himself. Kev immediately started apologising to Ed, whispering in his ear as he held him close. Harry continued without paying Kev’s outburst any notice. 

‘Of course, we’re not going to put our subs into such a position. But that doesn’t mean that one of the doms cannot infiltrate.’ Nick immediately shot to attention. ‘I’ll be perfect for that! There’s always been a lot of rumours saying that I cannot stomach you as our Captain. Why not use that?’ Harry looked at Nick closely. ‘Are you sure you’re comfortable with infiltrating in Luke’s operation? It might get dangerous.’ 

‘Sure thing, boss. Let them come at me. I’m ready for them.’ Nick gave Harry a false salute, who flipped him off in return. The rest of the meeting was spent discussing the details of the plan. They would need to plant some seeds first to make Nick’s departure seem realistic. Then, they’d need to find out from which location Luke ran his operation in order for them to drop Nick off there. 

Conversations around the table got more and more enthusiastic as more parts of the plan were thought out. The doms around the table started speaking louder and louder until they were almost screaming to be heard over the noise. ‘How are we going to stay in contact with Nick if he’s with Luke and we’re out sailing?’ Niall spoke up for the first time since the start of the meeting. He didn’t have to yell to be overheard, all doms were so attuned to the subs on the ship, they listened automatically whenever they spoke. All conversations fell silent, the enthusiastic, cheerful mood that had been present just seconds ago seemed to have vanished. 

Ed was the one to offer the solution. ‘Well, that’s easy really. We just need to make sure that we have one person in each harbour we can trust. We’ll make sure our route is predetermined and that Nick knows exactly when we will anchor in which harbour. We’ll also need to calculate how long it will take for his letters to reach each location. He can then just send a letter to the location we will be at next. Most important part is that we know we can trust the person on Nick’s side not to get suspicious of the letters.’ 

All doms were silent as they all though over they plan they had so far. Nick and Harry would stage a falling-out. They would be seen arguing in different pubs in different harbours before there would be a falling-out of epic proportions in the harbour that housed Luke’s operations. Harry’s ship would leave the harbour without Nick, who would try to get a foot into Luke’s organisation. Nick was instructed to keep as low a profile as possible, the lower-ranking crewmembers often got jobs on the floor, making it easier to get to the subs. Harry and his crew would anchor in a different harbour once a week, where an update from Nick would be waiting for them. Nick would inform them whether it would be possible to write back, he would try to get someone in the harbour on his side to relay messages. 

After careful consideration, Harry concluded that the plan wouldn’t get any better than this. It would be difficult to infiltrate with more than one person, as Luke might get suspicious with more than one member of Harry’s crew turning on him. Something that hasn’t happened in the five years Harry headed his crew. Furthermore, they had no choice but to put their trust in one of the inhabitants of the harbour. Communication between Nick and the crew was vital in order to organise a successful raid. 

The one part of the plan Harry had absolute faith in was Nick’s part. He had known Nick since he was little. They had grown up together, gone to school together and decided normal life was not for them together. Harry had known Nick before he had known anyone else from his crew. While Harry worked his way up to first mate on the first ship they worked on, Nick was more content working the sails and acting as helmsman. When Harry got control over The One Direction (Niall laughed in his face when he found out Harry thought of the name himself) he offered Nick the position of first mate. Nick had immediately refused, stating that was “just not my scene, Harold.” Nick, however, could not get out of the meetings Harry had with his closest crewmates, as hard as he tried to at times. Nick might not think he was fit as a leader, everybody knew he was quick on his feet and was extremely loyal. 

‘Well, lads. I think we have ourselves a plan! There’s only one thing we need to discuss before we can bring out the rum. Will we be putting the plan into motion before or after we take Louis and Zayn home? Taking them home first will be safer for them, and we promised them. Moving forward with the plan means we can help the other subs sooner.’ All the doms around the table automatically looked at Niall and Ed, they were mostly in charge of decisions that affected the other subs on board. 

Ed crossed his arms over his chest with a displeased look on his face. ‘What are you guys looking at us for? It’s not our lives this will affect. Ask Louis and Zayn, be honest explain the plan and let them decide.’ All doms quickly looked at the table or their laps. Ed could be very strict and disapproving when he wanted, his glare could make any dom apologise within seconds. ‘You’re right, we should have thought of that immediately. I’ll get them right now.’ Liam stood up just as a timid knock sounded on the door. 

‘Come in,’ Harry was curious to see who was interrupting their meeting. The crew knew not to interrupt unless they were being attacked. Not that anyone ever abided to that rule. Louis poked his head through the opening in the door timidly, Liam sat back down again. Louis started speaking before he noticed the full room and he cut himself off. He hesitated, made to leave before he seemed to steel himself and stepped into the room fully. 

‘Are you talking about the guy who kidnapped us?’ He demanded to know. Harry raised one eyebrow. ‘Is that why you’re here?’ Louis seemed to lose some of his fire looking at all the doms in the room. ‘Err, no. I was wondering what we were expected to do all day. But now I want to know what you were talking about!’ Harry had to force himself not to laugh, Louis was so endearing trying to get his way. ‘Were you listening at the door? You have impeccable timing.’ Louis turned a deep shade of red before he strode into the room and sat at one of the empty chairs. He waved Zayn into the room as well, who timidly walked in while avoiding all eye contact.  
‘How much of the plan did you hear?’ Harry asked Louis as he leant back in his chair. Louis sat up straighter in his chair, resting his folded hands on the table, they were trembling. ‘Not much, the door was too thick for us to hear more that snippets, and the yelling,’ he shot Kev a disapproving look. ‘But we heard our names, so we want to be involved.’ 

Nick sniggered and slapped Louis on the back. ‘Well, you’ve got fire, sweetheart. You’ll fit right in.’ Louis shifted away from Nick’s touch. ‘My name is Louis,’ he said quietly. Nick apologised immediately, ‘I meant no offense, I will try not to slip up again.’ Louis looked at Nick with his mouth hanging open. 

‘Remember what I told you, Louis. No dom on this ship will intentionally disrespect you. Nick here is a massive flirt, so he might say some inappropriate stuff, but he means well. Just tell him off like you did just now.’ Louis looked at Nick from the corner of his eyes, not trusting him yet. ‘Nick also has some redeeming qualities, he has offered to infiltrate the operation of the guy who took you guys.’ Louis now looked at Nick fully, still a bit uncertain. 

‘Why would you do that?’ He asked Nick, Nick looked almost offended by the question. ‘First of all, not all doms are cunts. Second of all, I have some unfinished business with Luke. Lastly, my sisters are subs. I cannot risk them falling in his nasty pirate hands.’ Niall sniggered, Nick turned to him mock-offended. ‘What, those were three awesome reasons, Horan!’ Niall full out laughed at Nick now. ‘Sorry, sorry. But, you’re a nasty pirate yourself Grimmy, are you going to protect your sisters from yourself now, too?’ Nick pouted as he crossed his arms over his chest. ‘That’s hardly the same, and you know it.’ 

Harry turned back to Louis, who seemed to get more and more confused by the happenings at the table. ‘We’d like to know from you and Zayn what you would like us to do. Do you want us to bring you home immediately, or do you want us to put the plan into motion first? That would mean that it would take a while before we would be able to take you home.’ Louis shrugged his shoulders immediately, a bit too nonchalantly if you asked Harry. ‘That’s fine, start the plan. We don’t mind’ 

Harry nodded his approval. ‘That’s great, thanks. That means we can get to the subs still in captivity sooner. It does mean that you’ll be a part of this crew, albeit temporarily. We’d like for you and Zayn to complete some tasks each day, every crew member is expected to pull their own weight. You’ll be assigned tasks that will fit your abilities. Why don’t you shadow a different crew member each day to figure out what you like best?’ Louis and Zayn both nodded their consent, Zayn had not yet looked up from his hands. ‘If you complete your tasks to satisfaction,’ Harry continued, ‘you will get paid at the end of every month. It will not be much, as we do not ask you guys for any money to run the ship, but you’ll get an honest share of the profits we make.’ 

Zayn no longer seemed able to keep his mouth shut and his eyes trained on his hands. ‘What is wrong with you guys? Are you not supposed to be pirates? Pirates don’t save subs without ulterior motives, they don’t offer subs jobs, heck they don’t allow subs on their ships, let alone on their council!’ Harry had expected this outburst sooner or later, all subs on his ship had it at one point. Zayn was right, it was highly uncommon for doms to accept subs as their equals. Especially on sea. But Harry was raised surrounded by subs, when times were hard during his childhood, it was his sub mother who stood up to the plate and got things back on track. His childhood had shown Harry how strong and resilient subs were, as long as they got the opportunity to shine. 

Niall and Ed were good examples of this. They were both broken when they were rescued by Harry’s crew, refusing to come out of their cabin and not eating for weeks. Harry still didn’t know everything that had happened to them before they joined his crew.

He turned to Zayn directly, making eye contact with Louis to make sure he was listening as well. ‘I don’t know what has happened to you in the past, or who you’ve met. And I have to agree with you, the standard treatment of subs sucks. But we’re not your average pirates. We became pirates because we do not agree with some of society’s standards, including perceiving subs as less. That’s why we’re at sea, to live life the way we think it should be, in peace. We do not adhere to common convictions, so you should throw yours overboard. As long as you choose to be on this ship, you will be treated respectfully and like an equal.’ Zayn still looked a bit sceptical, but that was to be expected.

Harry had not been in his homeland for a while, he chose to leave that place and did not regret it once, but he had heard of the recent developments in England. Life was generally fine for those subs that were in the care of a dom they trusted. However, subs that ended up not being in anyone’s care were screwed. They were put in “care homes” where they were put to work to earn their keep. Doms could come and meet the subs during open houses. Afterwards they would be able to request a private meeting with the sub which could result in a request for pairing. Subs were able to refuse a pairing, but only once, they were obliged to accept the next pairing that was offered to them. This was all under the pretence of keeping the subs safe and off the streets. As subs were generally unable to find paid work, they needed someone to take care of them. 

In reality, most subs in care homes were abused by workers or were paired off with an abusive dom. Many subs paired off with close friends just before their eighteenth birthday to avoid having to go to a care home. But some subs were not that lucky, some were orphans or just didn’t know any doms. Many subs were taking drastic action to avoid a fate where they control would be taken out of their hands with force instead of them giving over the control over their own life. 

Harry still remembered when Niall and Ed first joined the crew. Harry and some of his crew were sitting in a pub in a harbour they anchored at frequently. They were having a good time and rum was flowing freely until Niall and Ed had been led up onto a stage with some other subs, similar to how Louis and Zayn had been pushed on the stage. The subs all looked drugged and put up little fight. Some of the subs had bruises on their face and the parts of their bodies on display. Some were walking with a waddle that made Harry sick to his stomach. 

When the bidding had started, Harry had lost sense of everything happening around him. At one point he must have gotten up from his chair and walked to the stage. The dom running the auction thought he must have wanted to claim one of the subs. Instead, Harry raised his gun and made his first and only kill. The next five minutes had been absolute chaos. Shots ringing through the pub, and doms fighting each other. Harry only had eyes for the five subs sitting on the stage, still drugged. He hoisted two up over his shoulder and saw Liam take another two. Nick punched the last struggling dom in the face, causing him to crumble to the floor. He picked up the last remaining sub and together they ran back to the ship as fast as they could. 

When he had made sure the subs were safe and sleeping it off, he made his way back into town and barged into the mayor’s house. He’d had an understanding with the mayor for a while now, Harry would offer the luxury goods he came onto during his travels to this town first. In exchange, the mayor would make sure no other pirates could conduct their business in the town. Some of Harry’s crew had family members living in this town. The mayor had responded just a bit too shocked for Harry’s liking, so before they had set sail, Harry had made sure that the mayor’s involvement had been proven. With a new mayor and a renewed understanding, Harry had left the island and had taken most subs home. 

Even though Niall and Ed had refused to tell Harry where they came from and insisted they wanted to stay on the ship, they were too scared of doms to even be in the same room as one. After Niall had thrown his food at Liam because it “smelled funny”, Harry offered him a job in the kitchen. Niall had seemed surprised but had shown up to the kitchen the next day, Ed tagging along. The subs were still quiet after that but seemed to relish in the little control they had over the crew. 

After starting work in the kitchen, Niall had quickly started to get to know the rest of the crew. He seemed to forget his reservations after a while, joking around with the different doms he served. He made one of them help him serve the food each evening, as Ed refused to get out of the kitchen during mealtime. Niall had easily become a part of the crew, drinking along with them at the end of the day and yelling the loudest during game nights. 

However, sometimes Niall insecurities would get the better of him and he’d lash out to see what would happen. After a few weeks, Niall crossed the line one too many times and got spanked. At first, he would get punished by whomever he seemed to cross. After a few punishments from different doms, he confided in Bressie that he felt dirty getting punished by different doms. Bressie had sought out Harry and announced that he would take responsibility for Niall from now on. Niall had eventually learned that yes, he would be punished when he misbehaved but he wouldn’t be abused no matter how hard he rebelled. After that realisation, Niall settled down and started enjoying life with his new dom. 

Ed had more trouble adjusting to his new life. Weirdly enough, the only person Ed trusted during that first period was Kev, the bulkiest and biggest member of the crew easily twenty years his senior. Kev had been the only one allowed in the cabin the boys were staying in and was the only one Ed would talk to. Kev would be allowed into the kitchen each night after dinner to help Ed with the dirty dishes. 

One night, a while after Niall and Ed had moved to the dormitory housing the single subs, Ed had had a nightmare. Niall had attempted to wake Ed from it but was not successful. Instead of waking and calming down, Ed had woken up even more scared than he’d been in his dream, when Niall had approached him he’d lashed out and punched Niall in the face. 

Kev had been standing guard outside their bedroom door, something he liked to do when he thought too much about what these boys had been through, when he heard the commotion. He forced himself not to barge into the room, as that would scare the poor subs. Eventually, when he heard a loud punch and Niall’s cussing, he had no choice but to knock on the door and open it a tad. Niall was sat in one corner of the room, clutching his face in between his hands. Ed was hunched in on himself on his bedsheets, hands over his ears and swaying back and forth. 

Kev had carefully approached Ed and sat next to him on his beddings. He made sure he didn’t touch him out of fear of scaring him even more. He’d waved Niall and the other subs out of the room and picked up the book Ed had been reading. He’d suggested the title to Ed and had lent him his own copy just a few days ago. It was nice to see that Ed was already more than halfway through. 

Kev had opened up the book and had started reading out loud to Ed. It had taken a good five minutes for Ed to uncover his ears and stop swaying back and forth. When he’d mumbled that he had missed the beginning, Kev started over from where he had begun without saying anything else. Ed had calmed himself down while listening to Kev reading. At one point he had lent against Kev for comfort, Kev didn’t stop reading but lifted his arm for Ed to burrow underneath. Ed had been too terrified to go back to sleep that night, so Kev had read to him until the bell announcing breakfast sounded. 

During breakfast, Ed had sheepishly apologized to Niall, who now had quite the shiner. Niall had waved away Ed’s apology, thanked him for the good story and dumped some more eggs on Ed’s plate. From that moment forward, Ed had opened up to Kev completely, searching him out when he couldn’t sleep and confiding in him about the things that had happened to him. He still didn’t trust the rest of the crew fully, but with Kev’s help, he at least felt safe on the ship.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, Louis and Zayn met up with Liam and Harry after breakfast. This would be their first day shadowing crew members to find out what they would like to do on the ship to fill their days. Liam would take Zayn with him and Louis would follow Harry. 

‘Does that mean that being Captain is an option? I bet I would make a way better Captain than you do!’ Louis was almost bouncing on his toes in his enthusiasm. Harry only rolled his eyes in response. ‘Let’s just see how you like it first,’ he said as he walked off to his first meeting of the day. 

‘Louis, you’ve met Nick. He’s the helmsman on duty today. He will tell us everything we need to know about the course we’re taking. He’s in close contact with the person in the crow’s nest so we can avoid running into trouble.’ Louis followed Harry’s finger with his gaze as he pointed at the crow’s nest in the upper part of the highest mast, he swallowed audibly. ‘Are we-we’re not going up there, are we?’ 

Harry sniggered. ‘Not today, no, usually they just yell to let us know what we need to know, or they come down if it’s not too urgent.’ Louis looked relieved and turned back to Nick. ‘Can I steer for a bit?’ Nick stepped away from the wheel and gestured for Louis to take his spot. ‘What do I do?’ Louis looked up at Nick expectantly, a big smile on his face. Harry could feel Louis fight his way into his heart with every little comment and action. 

‘Why don’t you give Louis a little show, Nick. Let him see what she can do.’ Nick grinned at Harry, a knowing look in his eyes. ‘Sure thing, Cap.’ He carefully approached Louis, ‘Is it okay if I stand behind you, so I can show you what to do?’ Louis nodded distractedly, ‘Sure, sure. Your weirdo Captain has taught me how to knock you to the ground if you do anything I do not like.’ Nick laughed as he stepped behind Louis, keeping a safe distance. 

He showed Louis how to stay on course based on the compass. When Louis managed to stay on course despite the waves crashing into the ship, he told Louis to sail west instead of north. Louis turned the wheel to port side a tad, he kept an eye on the compass but nothing happened. ‘This is the fun part,’ Nick said. ‘Give that wheel a good spin and see what happens.’ Louis looked at Harry uncertainly before spinning the wheel with all his might.  
The ship lurched to the port side, causing all the crew members on the deck to either scramble for something to hold on to or to slide to the port side of the ship. ‘Goddammit, Nick!’ Paul yelled form the middle of the deck, where he was hugging one of the masts to stay upright. Kev was laughing at him from where he was leaning against the port side of the ship. ‘Nice one, Louis!’ Just as Kev was about to stand up, Louis spun the wheel again and the ship further lurched to port side. Kev fell back down to the deck causing Paul to laugh so loudly he slid down the mast onto his bum. 

Louis’ face was filled with glee looking at the scene unfolding on the deck. He kept looking at the compass to get the ship in a western direction, another small adjustment to the wheel was needed to get the ship there. ‘That was fun,’ Louis concluded. ‘But only if we need to make big turns, I bet it will get really boring when you just sail in the same direction for hours.’ Nick nodded his agreement. ‘True, I’ll let you know when we need another big steer, why don’t you have a look at the other tasks here on the ship in the meantime.’ 

Harry and Louis thanked Nick and moved on to their next task of the day. They met up with all kinds of crew members from sailing specialists to the crew in charge of taking inventory and the navigators. Louis took on every task with the same enthusiasm but seemed to get bored with the tasks after a few minutes. At the end of the day, Louis had seemed to lose some of his enthusiasm. Harry tried to get Louis to tell him what was bothering him, but Louis had closed himself off. 

Louis looked dejected all throughout dinner as he listened to Zayn rambling about all the thing Liam allowed him to try. He had also tried steering for a bit, this time all crew members were tossed to starboard. He had liked sitting in the crow’s nest best. ‘It’s so peaceful and quiet up there, you can see nothing but sea for miles and you can hear nothing from all the noise the crew makes on the deck. I think I’ll ask Harry whether it would be possible for me to help in the crow’s nest.’ 

When Zayn asked Louis what we would like to do he didn’t look up from his food and just shrugged his shoulders. ‘Well,’ Zayn continued. ‘There must be something you’d like to do for a while. Harry did tell us we had to earn our keep, after all.’ Louis only seemed to get more depressed at this. He didn’t touch his dinner, as he didn’t feel comfortable eating a meal he didn’t earn.  
When Zayn was sufficiently distracted by Niall and Ed, Louis left the dining room and walked up to the desk. It was dark outside, a breeze pushing the sails out, but it was not cold. It had been a warm, sunny day and the wood of the ship was still warm to Louis’ touch. Louis lent his arms on the edge of the ship and looked up at the stars. As a kid he’d been fascinated by the stars and the stories his mother used to tell him about them. But his mom had been long gone and the stars no-longer held any secrets to him. 

Louis sighed as he thought over the day, he’d liked working together with the crew. He hadn’t felt so safe around so many doms in a while. But he just didn’t feel like he could contribute anything useful to the crew or ship. He’d only been on the ship for three days and he was already dreading having to leave the ship and its crew members behind.

When he woke up next to Zayn that first day on the ship, he was terrified. They were at open sea and not tied down. Something that only managed to scare Louis more, captors that didn’t feel the need to tie up their captives, were the worst of all. Louis had instructed Zayn to trash the room, to find out as much about the crew of the ship as possible, maybe that would help them escape eventually. They had not heard the know announcing Liam and Harry’s arrival, when the door had opened he had pushed Zayn behind him. 

It had taken a lot of his courage to stand up to Harry that first morning. Harry was intimidating in how he filled a room, the dom was larger and broad-shouldered. He had an air of importance around him, demanding immediate respect. Louis had felt the need to fall to his knees the first time he locked eyes with the Captain. Luckily, he had managed to press down this impulse. When Harry had told them the crew would take them home, Louis had not believed him. Even though he could remember Harry’s eyes from the night before, the only emotion he had registered was fear. Thus, he associated Harry with the fear he’d felt. 

The Captain had quickly shown him that Louis’ impression of him was dead wrong. There was nothing intimidating about Harry or his crew, they were all very respectful and were attuned with the needs of the subs aboard the ship. Niall and Ed had told Zayn and him that they had never come across a safer place in the entire world. Niall had shared a part of his past with them, and while they knew Ed had been through his fair share, he didn’t feel comfortable sharing. Seeing those two subs so comfortable on the ship, convinced Louis that he could start trusting the doms as well. It might be the most difficult thing he’d ever done, but it was essential for him to find a safe place, other than this ship he had nowhere to go. 

He hadn’t noticed Harry coming to stand next to him. Louis startled when Harry cleared his throat. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.’ Louis didn’t reply, he was still looking at the stars, wondering how he was going to prove to Harry he was a valuable enough addition to the crew. Harry didn’t seem in any hurry to start up a conversation, following Louis’ gaze to the stars and looking up at them as well.

‘What happens when I turn out to suck at all jobs on the ship?’ Harry looked away from the stars and focussed his gaze on Louis. ‘Is that what’s got you all worried tonight?’ Louis shrugged his shoulders, reluctant to admit to Harry how important he and the ship had already become to Louis. 

Harry sighed and turned to lean against the ship’s railing. He crossed his arms and turned to Louis completely. ‘We will find you something to do, there’s no need to worry about that.’ Louis frowned at the sea. ‘What about earning my keep?’ Harry frowned right back at Louis. ‘What’s got you so worried, you’ve been doing really well on all the tasks we gave you today, I’m positive we’ll find you something to do.’ 

‘I know and it was all fun to do, but for a shorter period of time, not for all day every day. Is there not a job that will allow me to do a bit of everything?’ Harry perked right up. ‘Do you know what a boatswain does?’ Louis shook his head. ‘A boatswain is in charge of all the personnel and equipment on the ship. He oversees repairs and makes sure everyone does their job like they should. Kev’s been mentioning he can use some assistance. He’s been pestering Ed to help him, but Ed doesn’t want to leave the kitchen. I could ask him if he’d show you some of his duties tomorrow?’ 

Louis looked up at Harry, the smile he had on his face the entire day was back. ‘Yes, please! I think I wouldn’t mind bossing your crew around a bit.’ Harry grinned. ‘No, I don’t think you would. But if there’s ever a time you feel the need to submit, please come and find me.’ Louis’ smile disappeared again. ‘Where the fuck is that coming from?’ 

Harry tried to act nonchalantly, ‘It’s just something unpaired subs in high-ranking positions have found out. It can be difficult telling doms what to do all day when your main instinct is to submit. But it doesn’t have to be a problem, we have taken arrangements to ensure all subs feel comfortable and can still carry out the jobs they’re good at.’ 

Louis didn’t seem to be pacified at all, as he stubbornly crossed his arms with a frown on his face. ‘I am not going to submit to just any dom ordering me around. I have been fine not being dominated for years, I will survive years more.’ Harry sighed as he stepped away from the ship’s railing. ‘I didn’t ask you to submit to just anyone. We take care of each other on this ship, that might be something you’ll want to get used to.’ 

Louis was still thinking about Harry’s words long after the dom had left. Louis life hadn’t been the easiest, he’d had to fend for himself for the largest part of his life. He’d always been so occupied with staying safe and making sure he had a place to sleep and something to eat, he’d never had to worry about his instincts taking over and him needing to submit. Harry did have a point, whether Louis liked it or not, this was the first time in years Louis felt safe and didn’t have to worry for his life. He’d fall victim to his instincts sooner or later. Ed had told him he and Niall had both paired off with doms relatively soon after joining the crew, they both never had to worry about randomly submitting to the dom that was closest to them in that moment. Louis didn’t want to pair off with a random dom that was just conveniently close. 

The one thing that had kept him going when he was sleeping under a bridge in the middle of winter with rain dripping onto his makeshift blankets was the idea that one day he’d be free of that misery and would have a dom that would take care of him. Louis was not going to give up on that dream just because he wasn’t careful. As much as Louis hated to admit it, he had to listen to Harry. The Captain would keep him safe.

If Louis was brutally honest with himself, he wouldn’t mind submitting to the dom that had saved him and provided him with a home, a family and an income of his own. But that was something he was not ready to admit, even to himself. 

For now, Louis was satisfied that he would not be send away for failure of putting in the work needed to keep the ship going. With a light heart he went back to the dormitory he shared with Zayn and the other unpaired subs. As expected, all the subs were there together with Niall and Ed. Zayn was still telling them all about his successful day and his desire to go up into the crow’s nest more often. Louis could now listen to Zayn with real interest and didn’t miss it when the topic of conversation was no longer Zayn’s desired job, but Zayn’s desired dom. Liam had apparently been the perfect gentleman, helping Zayn with all the tasks but making sure the sub could complete them al himself. He’d even gone out of his way to ask Zayn’s opinion on the matters he was discussing with the crew. 

Zayn’s eyes were twinkling in a way Louis had never seen before. He’d met Zayn when they were both sleeping on a bench in the park. It had started raining and Louis hadn’t managed to find a place to hide from the rain when Zayn had called out for him. He hadn’t minded sharing his own hiding spot if Louis shared some of his food with Zayn. They’d been fast friends and had stuck together after that. 

In order to keep himself safe, Zayn had built up walls that even Louis couldn’t break down some days. He never allowed himself a moment of relaxation and was always on high-alert. Reflecting on what Harry had said, and having a close look at Zayn, he couldn’t but agree with the dom. Zayn was opening up to Liam without any hesitation, something he had never done before for as long as Louis had known him. Louis could imagine Zayn dropping one night without any clear trigger. He’d have to make sure Liam was the one taking care of Zayn when that happened. 

Seeing Zayn opening up like this and taking the chance that was offered to them without hesitation got Louis thinking. He’d always wanted to find himself a dom, but he’d never find someone he really connects with if he keeps avoiding them all. The thing that would most likely happen then is that he’d drop unannounced when Harry wasn’t there to take care of him and he’d be paired off to some random dom. As difficult as it would be, he’d have to open up to Harry and allow them a fair chance at making a connection. 

It was only deep in the night, when he was laying on his cot, that he’d realised he unconsciously had already selected a dom. He wasn’t even considering anyone else, Harry was who he thought of when he decided to open up to a dom. He’d have to confront Harry tomorrow, make sure Harry knew what he was thinking before other events transpired and it would be too late. Anxious for the next day, Louis fell asleep with a smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I have some ideas for the rest of this story, but as I said it's self-indulgent comfort writing.


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